Background

This was Salt Solution's single. I wrote the lyric after seeing redundancy first hand in Thatcher's Britain: The sacrifice of the individual for the sake of the 'economy'. I wasn't made redundant myself but I was 're-deployed' from my chosen career to a job husbanding a midge colony (you hear right!) in the same virus research facility. The song itself is a kind of anti-big-brother piece. Being 1984 there were lost of articles in the mainstream press saying how Orwell got it wrong. But I had been reading some Amnesty papers about surveillance and suchlike that made me distrustful of how computerise information was being abused and how Orwell was spot on! The computer reference still seem topical today. Ironically my own route out of the recession was to retrain as a computer programmer after which I served 20 years of soft-labour.

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'Your Country Needs You' by Martin Day

There's a printer in your office, a computer in your chair,
Your cards are on the table. It's not that we don't care.
You've really been no trouble, but just in case you are
Computers don't join Unions. Would you leave the company car.

You try to find a job, but an indiscretion years ago,
Is down in your records, and you'll never even know.
Computers don't forget, and you'll never clear your name.
Unforgiving they'll ensure that you never work again.

So it's, Congratulations Sir, you've been especially selected,
Congratulations, your country needs you on the dole.
Congratulations Sir, you've been especially selected,
Congratulations, your country needs you on the dole.

Supply and demand, the difference is deep,
And many jobless people means the labour is cheep.
That keeps the profits rising, but you can't expect a share.
You see them in their massive motors, and they say there's none to spare.

So it's, Congratulations Sir, you've been especially selected,
Britain can be Great again if you just play your role
Private sector needs incentive, so your pay's been redirected
Congratulations, your country needs you on the dole.